Japan Atomic Blasts Regulator on Ruling That Keeps Reactor Shut

Japan Atomic Power Co., which has
Tokyo Electric Power Co. as its largest shareholder, said a
decision by the regulator that will keep one of its nuclear
reactors off line is “unacceptable.”

The Nuclear Regulation Authority, set up after the
Fukushima disaster, today approved a report by its advisory
board that said the No. 2 reactor at Japan Atomic’s Tsuruga
plant has been built on an active earthquake fault.

That violates safety regulations for nuclear plants,
Shunichi Tanaka, the chairman of the regulator, told reporters
in Tokyo today. Despite repeated questions, he declined to say
outright that the ruling means the regulator would deny an
application to restart the reactor in western Japan.

The report on the earthquake fault is “wrong” and
“unacceptable,” Japan Atomic said in a statement today. The
operator wants the NRA to reconsider the decision after
additional investigations of the fault line commissioned by
Japan Atomic are completed at the end of June, it said.

All but two of Japan’s 50 reactors remain shut with no
announced schedule for restart after the quake and tsunami in
March 2011 caused meltdowns and radiation leaks at the Fukushima
Dai-Ichi plant owned by Tokyo Electric.

Nuclear plant operators are carrying out checks and
upgrading equipment and tsunami defenses to meet the NRA’s new
safety standards, which will be put into effect in July.

Fault Line

Last week, a group of scientists led by Kunihiko Shimazaki,
an NRA’s commissioner, concluded a fault running under the No. 2
reactor at the Tsuruga plant is active.

The regulator, known as the NRA, will assess possible
damage to the Tsuruga plant, which has two reactors and a spent
fuel pool, if the fault under the No. 2 unit moves, NRA Chairman
Tanaka said today.

Currently, the 1,160-megawatt Tsuruga No. 2 reactor, which
has been shut since May 2011, doesn’t hold any fuel rods, the
NRA said in a statement today. The spent fuel pool at the No. 2
reactor stores 1,705 uranium fuel rods, it said.

Both Japan Atomic’s and the NRA’s reports “need to provide
a lot more information, and be evaluated by independent experts
to see that the issues are addressed comprehensively,” a group
of scientists commissioned by the plant operator said in a
statement yesterday.

Japan Atomic would have 256 billion yen ($2.49 billion) in
losses and become insolvent if the company decides to
decommission its two reactors at the Tsuruga plant and one at
its Tokai Dai-Ni nuclear station, the trade and industry
ministry estimated last June.